L2 Cache

WayneM wrote:

 > How important is L2 cache for simple computing. i.e. email internet surfing,
 > word processing and minimal home publishing and image editing. No gaming or
 > video editing.
 >
 > I don't think our K6-2 550 at our summer camp has any on-chip L2 cache and
 > it doesn't seem particularly slow.

It likely has L2 cache on the motherboard. Which doesn't improve the
performance as well as on-die L2 would, because it's limited to the FSB
speed, but it's better than none.

The question really mixes two things together with the real question being
"how much computing power is needed for 'simple computing'?" The L2
implementation is simply one piece of the picture on how much computing
power the particular system has.

A K6-II 550 is no speed demon but it's fine for 'simple' things.

As a point of comparison, I just 'refurbed' an old system with a P200MMX
and 64 meg of RAM, running Win98Se, for use as a 'school paper' machine.
I.E. It's purpose is to run Word (plus MP3s and a few DOS games) thereby
freeing up the main machine for other tasks. And since it's not loaded up
with a gaggle of other things, just what's needed, the response, while not
blazing, is surprisingly brisk. No on-die L2 there either, btw (512K
motherboard L2)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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